1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to skis, and more particularly, to an improvement in alpine skis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that when a skier is maneuvering a turn on a downhill slope or is tracking, that is, crossing a slope obliquely, he must rely almost entirely on the control edges of the skis. These edges must be kept sharp in order to prevent uncontrolled slipping. In order to use the control edges, the skier must tilt the skis about their longitudinal axes and must maintain this unnatural attitude, thus creating considerable stress on his ankles.
It has been contemplated that skis should be constructed such that they are split or segmented longitudinally such that each ski would present more than one control edge to the surface of the snow, whereby the weight of the skier would be more evenly distributed on the ski when the skier is tracking or is carving a turn. Attempts to provide a longitudinal segmented ski are illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,162, Coutts, 1970. In the Coutts patent, a ski is split from the tail to a point intermediate of the ski and is provided with a control device for ensuring the parallelism of the segments and for preventing the segments from flexing away from each other beyond predetermined limits. However, it is thought that a fully segmented ski would be much better in this regard since the plurality of control edges would extend the full length of the ski. Such a ski is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,994, Locati, 1975. In the Locati patent, slide or hydraulic devices maintain two segments of a ski in two separate parallel planes. Accordingly, the Locati patent provides two control edges for each ski through a limited range of angles.